– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:””; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page WordSection1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:21.3pt 72.0pt 50.4pt 93.6pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} –>
BOUGAINVILLE
Electoral Commissioner Mr George Manu has officially announced the dates for
the 2018 ABG By-Elections.
The announcement which was done recently and witnessed by the ABG Deputy Chief Secretary (Strategic Policy) Mr Thomas Raivet and representatives from media, now puts to rest doubts people had regarding the conduct of by-elections for the three vacant seats in the Bougainville House of Representatives.
These vacant
constituency seats include Halia in the Buka district, Taonita Teop in Tinputz
and Kongara in the Kieta district of Central Bougainville.
“I am pleased to
announce today, that the dates for the 2018 ABG By-Elections have already been finalized
and that the Office of the Bougainville Electoral Commissioner (OBEC) is now
set and ready to conduct these elections,” Mr Manu said.
According to Mr
Manu, election writs will be issued by the Speaker of the ABG House of
Representatives on Friday 21st September, while nominations will take
place from 24-26 September. Polling will be from 15-19 of October and counting
is scheduled for 22-26 October. The return of writs will take place on 29th
October 2018.
“As you can see
from this schedule, we have about five weeks to conduct and complete these
elections.
“Despite the short
time we have to facilitate all these different electoral activities, I am positive
and can assure the people of these three constituencies that will be having
their by-elections, including the Bougainville Executive Council and ABG, that
OBEC is prepared and ready to conduct and complete the election within this
scheduled timeframe,” said Mr Manu.
The announcement
of the election dates also came as an early independence gift to the people in
these three constituency as they have been without a representative in the ABG
Parliament for more than a year.
Deputy chief
secretary Mr Raivet commended the Electoral Commissioner for officially
announcing the dates for the elections.
He said despite
the financial constraints faced by ABG, it was very important that funding be
allocated to such electoral activities.
“People need to
have their representatives in parliament so that they can have a voice.
“This is very
good, this is an achievement where all Bougainvilleans feel that they have a
voice in their parliament and that they are being represented just like the others.
He added that the
conduct of the by-elections is another milestone achievement towards updating
the voter roll that will be used during the referendum to decide Bougainville’s
future political status.
“This is one thing
out of the way but is an achievement and we can move on from there; the
updating of the referendum roll and trialing it, rehearsing it, getting it
fully updated and we prepare for next year,” Mr Raivet said.
The Taonita Teop
constituency seat had become vacant following the demise of member, late Raopos
Apou Tepaia in 2016, whilst the members for the other two seats had resigned
early last year to contest the 2017 National Elections.
/